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An East Staffordshire borough councillor has been found to have brought the authority into disrepute after a series of complaints, including that hebullied a community centre boss.

Labour councillor Syed Hussain, who represents the Anglesey Ward, was found to have breached the council's code of conduct after a standards committee meeting at Burton Town Hall.

He was accused of bullying a former manager of Queen Street Community Centre by making comments alleging he was involved in 'criminal activities' in earshot of members of the public.

It was said he switched off the music in 'aggressive manner' at a community centre fun day, saying it was a Muslim area where it was supposed to be quiet on a Sunday.

The council was told the centre alleged Councillor Hussain said he wanted to "sweep away the bigots and racists and replace with his own people" at the centre and went on to submit many applications from people to become trustees there.

He was also accused of attempting to divert business away from the centre to Uxbridge Street Community Centre in the town.

It was also said that he left the centre out of pocket by around £1,000 after printing material there which it is claimed he did not pay for, the committee was told.

The councillor, who is a former trustee at Queen Street until he resigned in 2018, was also accused of only attending four board meetings out of a possible 16, and not providing apologies.

He strongly denies all the allegations which are said to have happened in 2017/18.

The complaints were made in a complaint by the board that runs Queen Street Community Centre to the borough council and were considered by the authority's standards committee on Tuesday, January 7.

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The board alleged the applications for trustees submitted by Councillor Hussain were 'simply bad photocopies' and could not be accepted.

Councillor Hussain is also accused of diverting business away from the community centre by being 'negative' about the place when a charity had asked to rent a room there, the meeting was told.

It was alleged the councillor had told the charity to set up at Uxbridge Street Community Centre instead and to keep these discussions with him confidential.

The committee also heard he had not paid for around £1,000 worth of printing costs which he had allegedly used for personal and pollitical purposes, rather than for the benefit of Queen Street.

Councillor Hussain attended the committee meeting along with his legal representative, Layla Zamanpour, who said the councillor held positions on five council committees, was a borough and county councillor, a father-of-three and a practising Muslim, as well as an active member in the community, which is why he often could not attend trustee meetings.

Miss Zamanpour added he had provided apologies either in person or via a phone call, but that the board said the apologies needed to be in writing which he says he did not know.

On claims he switched the music off at the fun day, he said: "I find this very offensive and untrue."

He said that he simply asked for the music to be turned down because the area was residential with disabled people in the vicinity.

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Councillor Hussain denies diverting business to another community centre saying he had no power to do so, and Uxbridge could not have been used anyway as it was going through a refurbishment at the time.

He denied using the printer as much as is alleged, saying: "If it was printing for my purposes only, I would pay. I did not pay when it was for the benefit of the centre."

Councillor Hussain says he was asked by the centre to find people to become trustees, which he did.

On his relationship with the manager he said: "I would say we had a good relationship and I got more people to engage with the community centre.

"His encouragement was to get more people in there and he gave me the forms to recruit members."

The former manger told the committee: "If I did give out the forms, I would only give out one and it would be an original. It would not be photocopied ones. These were poor copies we had received."

The committee ruled that Councillor Hussain had breached the code of conduct.

A spokesman for the council said: "Councillor Syed Hussain was found to have acted inappropriately in the use of Queen Street Community Centre resources and in his behaviour towards an employee of the community centre.

"By acting as he did Councillor Hussain failed to treat the employee with respect and bullied him meaning that the behaviour amounted to a breach of paragraphs 3.1 and 3.4 of the council's Code of Conduct for Councillors.

"The Standards Committee also found that the councillor's behaviour brought the council into disrepute, in breach of paragraph 3.9 of the Code of Conduct.

"The committee resolved to publish its findings in respect of the councillor’s conduct and report its findings to the council for information."